


feline ailments

by kagako



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Cat Ears, Gen, Humor, happy birthday pearl!!!, i dont really know what else to say?, mementos adventures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-15 03:53:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18066113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kagako/pseuds/kagako
Summary: “You have cat ears!” comes Morgana’s disbelief.“Guess you guys are brothers, huh?”“Ryuji!”-After a run-in with a Shadow they've never seen before, something is different about Akira.





	feline ailments

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shazamitylam](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shazamitylam/gifts).



> happy birthday pearl!!!! :)<3  
> you talked about persona and cat boys and it made my third eye open and im glad because i was able to write you something for your birthday♥ i hope you like it, i had a lot of fun writing it!!! i love you so much! thank you for becoming my friend and always spreading those Comedy God vibes! :pensive:
> 
> sorry if there are any mistakes i wrote this within like the span of 5 hours off and on... lol....;;
> 
> everyone else, thank you for coming! please enjoy!

Mementos trailed downward in spirals and sharp turns, with dead ends and these _huge_ rooms that would, most of the time, _not_ even have that shiny gold chest that made Morgana start purring on the spot. Needless to say, there were many things Akira and his teammates still needed to figure out about the place, but for the time, they drove deeper and deeper, idle chatter making rounds around the group while Makoto constantly reminded them, _we must stay sharp._

The words came back to Akira in mid fight, no more than fifteen minutes later.

Joker sees it as a challenge, teeth bared and as he crouches, Akira has to push his other side back, taking more control over their shared body. He takes a step back and throws an arm out as if to say, _be wary._ The enemy in front of them wasn’t fazed at all, even through their all out attack, even when Akira summoned Yoshitsune and powered up. If magic didn’t work, if physical attacks couldn’t get the damage done, then…

The others must sense it, too—Akechi’s eyes are sharp behind his mask, Robin Hood appearing behind him. Ann crouches just as Akira has, defensive and on guard. Yusuke has his sword crossed at his chest, feet planted evenly onto the floor so depending on where this Shadow attacked, he could dodge either left or right.

“Futaba?” Ann calls. She inches back, eyes never leaving the Shadow that floats in front of them.

“W-Wait, guys, I don’t…” Futaba mumbles, trying not to sound as frantic as she feels.

The Shadow hovers, its aura almost suffocating. Akira squints, but he can’t quite make out what the enemy looks like: there’s a haze around it, undistinguishable shapes moving just behind the gray haze that protects it.

Joker laughs in the back of his mind, hysterical and deafening as Akira bites the insides of his cheeks.

“We can’t stand around here much longer,” he directs, and like a finely tuned machine, each of them takes a step back. “Careful.”

Futaba gasps right when the haze disappears, and the rest happens quickly.

The Shadow is unrecognizable, but then again, all Akira sees is what looks like a spell: a bright blast of purple, too close to his face for comfort. Akira’s sure he hears shouts and footsteps all around him, but he can’t quite make out the words or the sounds. He can feel the ground at his back, cold and hard and it moves beneath him, in that creepy way the walls always move in Mementos.

The last thing Akira can make out before he passes out is Joker laughing in his ears.

***

When Akira regains his consciousness, he keeps his eyes closed. He’s on the floor again, and he can tell they’re still in Mementos by the way his body feels: heavy yet light at the same time, power seething and ready to be used. Joker is still there, too, humming in his ear as if the entertainment never ceased.

Akira can’t help but feel like something is off. He can hear everyone fine. Futaba sounds like she’s sniffling in the distance, Ann and Haru comforting her with words of, _it’s okay, Futaba,_ and _Ann’s right, you know! I truly doubt he is dead,_ to which Ann says, _H-Haru, please…_

Makoto scolds Ryuji and Morgana farther in the distance, but all Akira can hear from them is Ryuji sighing dramatically. Close by he hears Yusuke and Akechi going back and forth, a game of shiritori between them: _eclipse, extravagant, tan, naked, da—wait, uh…_

Akira opens his eyes. His vision is fine—so why…

“Ah! He’s awake!” comes Akechi’s voice.

All at once, the ground beneath him drums with their footsteps, and no sooner after that he has each of his teammates looking down at him.

It’s Ryuji who breaks the silence first: “Man, was that fun or what?”

“Uh, no, it really wasn’t,” Ann says, the annoyance clear on her face.

“Are you okay?!” Futaba screams.

“You really worried us, Akira,” Makoto chides, and Haru agrees: “It wasn’t funny in the slightest!”

“Quite so. If you wanted someone to fawn over you, you must only say the word,” Yusuke tells him, but it sounds more like Fox, to Akira.

“What happened?” comes Akechi’s interrogation.

“Can I get some space to get up, first?”

They all back away in unison, bumping into each other. Even standing up, Akira feels fine, overall, but there’s something there, something different that he can’t quite place his finger on. He frowns, narrowing his eyes to the ground because _something_ is definitely off, but… “Hey, is there anything different about me?”

“You mean the fact you didn’t dodge that attack?” Ryuji asks with mischief in his eyes.

“Ha. No,” Akira replies dryly, his glare playful as he directs it to his friend.

“I’m sorry, Akira, I can’t really see that well…” Makoto apologizes, worry lacing her voice. “We’ve been in here for some time, now. We’re all fatigued.”

“Right. Sorry. We should get out of here.”

“Yes! Back to Leblanc we go. I’m starving.”

“Oh, me too, Mona-chan!”

***

When they return to their world, it’s Akechi that yelps in alarm first. He’s quick to throw his uniform jacket over Akira’s head, eyes wide in alarm and confusion and something else that Akira can’t quite make out, but when he opens his mouth to speak, Akechi cuts him off, hysteria in his voice. “We—We have to get back to Leblanc, quickly!”

Everyone opens their mouths, questions on their tongues, but Akechi glares at them, and repeats himself instead: _“Quickly!”_

They make it back to the café in record time.

Akira gets shoved inside first, Akechi’s fingers digging into his shoulders as he guides him to the barstool and shoving him onto it. They look around cautiously, no sign of Sojiro in sight.

Akechi takes a deep breath, shaky on the exhale but he would never admit it. “I… I think we have a problem.”

“What?” Akira says, his voice flat—but, now that he was out of the influence of Mementos, he could… just barely… on his head… “Huh...?” Akechi looks over to him, alarm and a sense of understanding in his eyes.

“What’s going on?” Makoto asks, worry lacing her voice and clouding her usual expression.

Slowly, unwillingly, Akira lifts a hand and removes the jacket that’s hiding his hair from sight.

The reaction is immediate.

Everyone but Akechi pushes forward, crowding around him with wide eyes and surprised faces. _What, how,_ and _can this really happen, it was that Shadow wasn’t it!_ fill the room, taking over the usual peacefulness of the café.

“You have cat ears!” comes Morgana’s disbelief.

“Guess you guys are brothers, huh?”

“Ryuji!”

Akira can feel the ears on top of his head fold down without his permission, and it causes another round of chaos to wave through the group.

“You are so cute!” Ann says, bright eyed. “You know, you could totally model like this!”

“You are kind of cute,” Ryuji tells him with a shrug, reaching for his ears. Morgana pounces, clawing into Ryuji’s chest on the landing. “You don’t touch cat’s ears without permission!”

“I’m not a cat.”

“I wonder if you have a refined taste for fish now…” Haru mumbles seriously, and then: “Fish coffee…? Ah, no, that sounds… rather gross.” She turns to Akira, apologetic. “Excuse the poor imagery that came with the words I just said.”

“No, you’re good,” Akira assures her, a laugh threatening to spill, despite the circumstances—and he wonders if he should have just let himself laugh, because Futaba’s close to tears with how hard she’s been laughing.

“May I draw you?” Yusuke asks, fingers twitching.

“Whoa, man, that’s…” Ryuji warns, and Akira rolls his eyes because he should know better, really. In the next moment Yusuke turns to him, brows furrowed as he says, “What do you mean?”

“Do you feel any different?” Makoto asks, opting to ignore more than half of the people in the café. “Did you… feel any different?”

“No, not really,” Akira tells her truthfully. He shrugs, narrowing his eyes in thought as he tries to ignore everyone’s stares. “I mean, obviously it was that weird Shadow. It was just really fast, and very purple and bright, and then I was on the ground…” Akira trails off, lifting his shoulders in another shrug. “Hey, do you think I’ll get claws?”

That causes a laugh to erupt through the group, and Makoto rolls her eyes and says, _that’s not really funny,_ and Akechi presses his lips together in a fine line, either to keep from laughing or because he’s so stressed out about the current situation.

“Should we go back to Mementos?” Futaba asks, failing to control the way her lips twitch upward in a smile. A laugh plays at the back of her throat, and she barely contains it.

“What if that Shadow is waiting?” Ryuji points out, and then, “but what was that Shadow’s deal?”

A murmur falls over the group, the repeated phrases of _I don’t know,_ and _I’m not quite sure…_ filtering through the air.

“It might go away with time, like an ailment.” Akechi speaks for the first time in ten minutes. Everyone looks over to him, considering the possibility.

“That’s true,” Akira agrees. He wasn’t too keen on the idea, but if it were to happen to anyone, he’s glad it was him and not any of the others. It wasn’t his first time being a guinea pig, and it wouldn’t be the last—especially with the experimental medicines, the unknown lurking within Mementos… He was the leader, he had a responsibility.

“Then, I guess I’m not really worried,” Futaba announces, nonchalant in the way she shrugs and bares her teeth in a smile.

“Oh, you wound me.” The complete 180 turn of his teammates made his head spin, but he was thankful for it: he didn’t need them worry about his… cat ears.

“She’s lying! She cried for a solid ten minutes, thinking she killed you,” Ryuji interjects, and Futaba’s scream of rejection follows suit immediately.

“I think you’ll be okay! Probably!” Haru assures him, her smile wide and welcoming.

“For now, you should stay inside, Akira,” Makoto tells him, apologetic. He can tell by the look in her eyes that she’s coming up with a plan in case his new _feature_ doesn’t disappear. “Thankfully, tomorrow is Sunday…”

“Yeah,” Akira nods, giving his teammates a smile. “It’s alright, guys. I’m sure it’s just like a status ailment. If nothing happens and I still have the ears, though, well—we will think about it when the time comes.”

Solemnly, his teammates file out of the café one by one, bidding their good nights and see you tomorrows. Worry is clouding their faces even as Akira’s uplifting words remain fresh in their brains—how would an ailment from Mementos fair in the real world? They were hit with something unexpected.

Akechi is the last one remaining, purposefully hanging behind the crowd. When Akira turns his way, he can feel the ears on top of his head perk up—at least, this might not last forever… hopefully.

“Will you be okay?” Akechi asks, and the worry even evades his defenses and clouds his expression.

Akira laughs, waving a hand in the air as though it were another simple walk through a Palace. “It’s alright, Akechi. I’m sure it’s like an ailment, like you said.”

“I just… hope I am not wrong.”

“When have you ever been wrong?”

That gets a laugh from Akechi, at least, and Akira offers him a smile, one that he tries to convey his own easiness into. There’s something ultimately strange about this: a guy smiling in front of him with _cat ears_ on his head, but Akechi cannot control the tug it has on him, the confusion that rises in his chest.

“Does Morgana like his ears scratched?” Akechi asks him, unable to stop his words. He raises an eyebrow—and the look on his face is somewhat similar to Futaba: mischievous, plain as day _up_ to something. A sense of calmness pours over Akira, because in a way, he was able to settle Akechi’s anxieties. Hopefully, that isn’t Joker’s mindset coming into play.

“Most of the time. It was a lie—he is usually the one asking me for scratches.”

“What would you do if I scratched your ears?” Akechi wonders aloud, taking a step forward.

“Hey now,” Akira laughs, “are you not going to ask _purr_ mission?”

Akechi snorts. “ _Purr_ haps. _Purr_ haps not.”

“I might bite, you know. Or claw you to shreds.”

“I’ll take my chances,” Akechi tells him, and the two of them can’t help the laughs that spill as he reaches upward, gentle as he scratches his fingertips against the back of Akira’s new ears.

“You know, that really doesn’t feel too bad. I could start purring any minute now.”

“A pity, because I really do have to catch my train. Maybe tomorrow, but only if you’re a good, and use your litter box.”

“Oh, of course. I won’t miss,” Akira promises, straight faced and serious, and it causes another round of held back laughter to tumble from Akechi’s lips. He lets his hand fall, his smile not as strained as usual as he bids his goodbye.

As he walks toward the station, he _kind_ of hopes he may or may not be wrong.

*

The next day, much to everyone’s disappointment, Akira’s cat ears do indeed disappear.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!!!
> 
> catboy akira 2019


End file.
